Now we're caught up to last month, and we're back to print comics with ARCHIE'S BIG BOOK: MAGIC, MUSIC & MISCHIEF trade paperback collection. I'm not going to list the Sabrina and Little Archie stories here, because they're not relevant to a comparison between collections focusing on Josie.

ARCHIE'S BIG BOOK: MAGIC, MUSIC & MISCHIEF Vol. 1	(111 pages)	source of 1st publication	Aug. 2017	writer	penciller	inker
A Gym Dandy - Chapter I	8 pages	JOSIE #1	Feb. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Neat Workers - Chapter II	6 pages	JOSIE #1	Feb. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Muscle Hustle - Chapter III	5 pages	JOSIE #1	Feb. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Track Down - Chapter IV	6 pages	JOSIE #1	Feb. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Footlight Follies - Chapter I	8 pages	JOSIE #2	Aug. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
The Bright Side - Chapter II	6 pages	JOSIE #2	Aug. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Show Biz Blues - Chapter III	5 pages	JOSIE #2	Aug. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
It's Curtain Time - Chapter IV	5 pages	JOSIE #2	Aug. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Sweater Girls - Chapter I	8 pages	JOSIE #3	Oct. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Bad Sort - Chapter II	6 pages	JOSIE #3	Oct. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Native Nuisance - Chapter III	5 pages	JOSIE #3	Oct. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Force Feed - Chapter IV	5 pages	JOSIE #3	Oct. 1963	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Vincent DeCarlo
Off To A Good Start	11 pages	JOSIE #45	Dec. 1969	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Take Me To Your Leader	10 pages	JOSIE #51	Oct. 1970	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Please Take Note	5 pages	JOSIE #55	June 1971	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Sing A Song of Sixpence	6 pages	JOSIE #59	Dec. 1971	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Club Crisis	6 pages	JOSIE #93	Dec. 1976	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
The Image	5 pages	ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT #98	Dec. 1984	George Gladir	Stan Goldberg	Rudy Lapick

Once again, stories exclusive to this collection are listed in RED, which includes a complete reprinting of the stories from SHE'S JOSIE #2 & 3! Worth it for that alone, IMO, even if you're mainly a digital reader collecting all the other digital exclusive collections.

I just got this.  I love the size!  GREAT collection.

Quote from: Vegan Jughead on September 07, 2017, 10:02:56 AM
I just got this.  I love the size!  GREAT collection.

Yeah, I'm surprised what a difference it makes. It's not like you ever have to strain your eyes reading a digest-sized reprint, or even the slightly larger "Best of Archie Series" TPB format, or the one they used to use for the "Archie & Friends All-Stars". But it's really nice to see them printed at the same size as the original comics. Even better on the larger, magazine sized pages used for the Archie Comics Super Specials and those IDW "Best of" Archie artists hardcovers. Maybe the ultimate (even though it only reprinted selected stories from the first two hardcover volumes of IDW's The Best of Dan DeCarlo) was that ARCHIE by Dan DeCarlo Treasury Edition, with pages that measure almost 10"x 13"!!

If you're a Josie fan, I recommend IDW's Archie Hardcover book, "The Best of Dan DeCarlo" Volume 4. I have all 4 volumes, but vol. 4 is my favorite because it has a six Josie stories (pre-Pussycats) nicely reproduced in large format on quality paper. Two of the stories are from Pep and Laugh before she got her own series.

Quote from: Ronny G on September 07, 2017, 05:18:40 PM
If you're a Josie fan, I recommend IDW's Archie Hardcover book, "The Best of Dan DeCarlo" Volume 4. I have all 4 volumes, but vol. 4 is my favorite because it has a six Josie stories (pre-Pussycats) nicely reproduced in large format on quality paper. Two of the stories are from Pep and Laugh before she got her own series.

No, (She's) JOSIE #1 was her true first appearance. Some people think it was Archie's Pals 'n' Gals #23, but that actually hit the stands a week or so later. During the 1960s, PEP and LAUGH were the true anthology titles where you might find any of the Archie characters. Some issues even had short comics featuring The Jaguar, or The Fly (or Fly-Girl), for a while. Josie was in some issues of each of those titles before Archie's TV Laugh-Out came along, but it was while she had her own comic book.

What I want to know about is this cover image....



Found that on the internet, with a claim that it was published April 24, 2012 by Archie Comics (supposedly a 160-page hardcover). The design actually looks more like one of the IDW books, but I'm not yet convinced that this thing actually exists. It's possible, though, if it were some sort of exclusive deal made by Archie Comics with a major bookseller, and wasn't available elsewhere, like the comic shop direct market.

Thanks for the info! I thought she started out in other comics first--sorta like Sabrina started out in the pages of Archie's Mad House. Thanks for clearing that up.
Regarding the other Best of Josie you pictured. I had pre-ordered it on amazon when it first showed up, but as the date approached, they cancelled it. I don't think it exists either. 
Would you happen to know about Katy Keene? I would like to read some of her old stories. I know some were reprinted in the digests, but they seem to be sporadic.  Do you have, or do you know of a list of reprinted Katy stories like the one you are doing of Josie.

Quote from: Ronny G on September 07, 2017, 07:10:44 PM
Thanks for the info! I thought she started out in other comics first--sorta like Sabrina started out in the pages of Archie's Mad House. Thanks for clearing that up.
Regarding the other Best of Josie you pictured. I had pre-ordered it on amazon when it first showed up, but as the date approached, they cancelled it. I don't think it exists either. 
Would you happen to know about Katy Keene? I would like to read some of her old stories. I know some were reprinted in the digests, but they seem to be sporadic.  Do you have, or do you know of a list of reprinted Katy stories like the one you are doing of Josie.

Katy Keene reprints have occasionally shown up in B & V Friends Double Digest. There was one in the latest issue, but it's from the Andrew Pepoy series of shorts which ran in ARCHIE & FRIENDS, and I suspect you're referring to the earlier ones. (I actually rather liked Pepoy's 21st century update of the character, all of which have been reprinted in a trade paperback collection, Katy Keene: Model Behavior from 2008.) There hasn't really been a digest title which had Katy reprints as a regular feature, but a few of them showed up in 2009-2012 in Betty and Veronica Double Digest #168, 169, 175, 178, 179, 185, 196, 197, and 199. Some of those issues (and others in-between) had Ginger reprints, too. Katy may possibly have been in other issues around that time, but I don't have a complete listing of contents of all the issues.

One thing I'm curious about is that whenever I do see Katy Keene reprints, they're never reprints of the 1980s series (another which I liked, of the few I've actually had a chance to read). The 1980s series of Katy Keene comics might still be found relatively more easily than her original series that ran from 1949 to 1961, so here's a list of them:

KATY KEENE SPECIAL #1 - 6 (September 1983 - October 1984)
KATY KEENE (Vol. 2) #7 - 33 (December 1984 - January 1990)
KATY KEENE COMICS DIGEST MAGAZINE #1 - 10 (1987 - 1990)

It seems to me that if you're looking for the most Katy stories you can get in one place, finding copies of those 10 digests would be your best bet. Unfortunately I don't own them myself, and the contents aren't indexed at the Grand Comics Database, so I can't tell you what the stories are, but it was a regular-size (96-page) digest, issued 4 times annually. Hope that helps.

Here's a typical issue's cover:

And finally, we come to the most recent (and largest) collection of Josie stories yet, THE BEST OF JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS (Aug. 2017) -- and at 385 pages, it outweighs the previous BEST OF JOSIE AND THE PUSSCATS: GREATEST HITS! digital exclusive collection by a whopping 92 pages of comics. You may have noticed that this is the third time they've used the words "The Best of Josie and the Pussycats" in the title of a collection. We had the 2001 trade paperback collection by that name, the 2014 digital exclusive collection subtitled "Greatest Hits!", and now this, which, by the physical dimensions of the book, I guess is intended to be considered part of "The Best of Archie Comics" series of trade collections.

Waitaminnit... how can I say 385 pages, when it says right on the cover of the trade paperback "Over 400 Pages"? Well, technically the book IS over 400 pages. Just not 400 pages of comics, and that's all I'm counting -- the actual pages of comics reprinted. Add the contents, credits and comments pages by some notable names in the comics biz (and elsewhere) and it does total over 400 pages -- but you're only buying it for the comics, right?

That being the case, let's be absolutely honest here and admit that the last 30 pages of comics in this book really don't count, because they're included for ACP's own self-serving purposes as advertising -- so that means there are really only 62 pages more of comics in this trade paperback collection than there are in the 2014 "Greatest Hits!" digital exclusive collection. My reasoning is as follows: The 20-page story from JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS (2016) #1 is immediately followed by a full-page reproduction of the cover of the trade paperback collecting the first 5 issues of that series (advertising). The 10-page story reprinted from RIVERDALE #3 only appeared a few months ago, in July 2017. By what stretch of the imagination can these stories honestly be judged as "the best of" anything? Unless you've been living under a rock somewhere, if you are a fan of Josie, you're already aware that these stories exist, and if you care about that kind of thing, you've probably already read them -- or, you've decided you don't care about them -- as the case may be. Even accepting the hypothetical premise that some under-rock-dweller might not have been aware that these stories existed, they're far too recent for any value judgment regarding their relative quality as among the "best of" Josie stories to be honestly assessed. These stories are included here by ACP solely for the purpose of promoting trade paperback sales (of JOSIE) and floppy comic book sales (of RIVERDALE). Harsh, but undeniably true. Nuff 'said.

All that said, apart from those, there are only 6 other stories in this collection (totaling 56 pages) that have never been included in any previous Josie collections. The 2014 "Greatest Hits!" digital exclusive compilation has 10 stories (totaling 84 pages) that aren't duplicated in any other Josie collections. So if digital is your preference in buying comics, you're much better off purchasing that collection as opposed to the digital version of this one. Apart from those 6 stories unique to this collection, you can get the other ones not common to the "Greatest Hits!" collection in other Josie collections. Furthermore, 2 of those stories ("Love & War" and "Maxim Mix-Up") did first appear in JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS (1993) #2, so there's another 13 pages you can subtract if you can manage to find a copy of that comic book. "Zero to Rock Hero" is another excellent story exclusive to this collection, but unfortunately, only the second part of the two-part continued story is reprinted here. And finally, it should be duly noted that one of those 6 stories, "Vengeance From the Crypt" from JOSIE #72, while undeniably a classic and also a first-time reprinting, is reproduced as shot straight from the printed comic book pages, giving it a somewhat muddy look compared to the other stories reprinted here, with, sadly, no attempt made at digital clean-up.  If there is a single story included in this collection but no other, that represents a worthy argument for buying this collection over 2014's "Greatest Hits!" digital exclusive, it's "Showstopper!", the sole Josie story ever drawn by Gisele Lagace, originally appearing in B & V FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #244. As with my previous contents listings, the ones in RED listed here are the stories unique to this collection.

BEST OF JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS	385 Pages	source of 1st publication	Aug. 2017	writer	penciller	inker
cover		JOSIE #50			Dan DeCarlo
Decisions, Decisions	6 pages	JOSIE #45	Dec. 1969	Dick Malmgren	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Off To A Good Start	11 pages	JOSIE #45	Dec. 1969	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Pussy Footing	5 pages	JOSIE #45	Dec. 1969	Dick Malmgren	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Sounds Silly To Me	5 pages	JOSIE #47	Apr. 1970	Dick Malmgren	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Using His Head	11 pages	JOSIE #48	June 1970	Dick Malmgren	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Quiet On The Set	8 pages	JOSIE #50	Sept. 1970	Dick Malmgren	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Shopping Spree	5 pages	JOSIE #50	Sept. 1970	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Litter By Litter	6 pages	JOSIE #51	Oct. 1970	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Take Me To Your Leader	10 pages	JOSIE #51	Oct. 1970	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
A Moment Of Truth	7 pages	JOSIE #55	June 1971	Dick Malmgren	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Please Take Note	5 pages	JOSIE #55	June 1971	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Power Shortage	6 pages	JOSIE #55	June 1971	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
The Ghost of Dark Valley Manor	16 pages	JOSIE #57	Sept. 1971	Dick Malmgren	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
My Brother's Keeper	8 pages	JOSIE #65	Oct. 1972	Frank Doyle	Stan Goldberg	Mario Acquaviva
The Swamp Mist Monster!	8 pages	JOSIE #67	Feb. 1973	Frank Doyle	Stan Goldberg	Mario Acquaviva
Vengeance From The Crypt	10 pages	JOSIE #72	Oct. 1973	Frank Doyle	Stan Goldberg	Jon D'Agostino
Club Crisis	6 pages	JOSIE #93	Dec. 1976	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
Some You Win	5 pages	JOSIE #98	Oct. 1978	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
A New View	5 pages	ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT #84	Feb. 1982	George Gladir	Stan Goldberg
Head Count	6 pages	ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT #95	June 1984	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Jim DeCarlo
What Price Failure	6 pages	ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT #96	Aug. 1984	George Gladir	Dan DeCarlo	Jim DeCarlo
The Swingers	6 pages	ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT #97	Oct. 1984	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
The Image	5 pages	ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT #98	Dec. 1984	George Gladir	Stan Goldberg	Rudy Lapick
Gimmick Happy	6 pages	LAUGH #1	June 1987	Bill Webb	Stan Goldberg	Jon D'Agostino
Gig Gala!	5 pages	LAUGH #4	Dec. 1987	George Gladir	Stan Goldberg	Hy Eisman
Say Cheese	1 page	ARCHIE'S PALS 'N' GALS #194	Jan. 1988	George Gladir	Stan Goldberg	Rod Ollerenshaw
Gig Gaga	5 pages	LAUGH #5	Feb. 1988	George Gladir	Stan Goldberg	Rudy Lapick
Costume Capers	5 pages	LAUGH #16	Aug. 1989	George Gladir	Stan Goldberg	Mike Esposito
Oldies But Goodies	5 pages	LAUGH #20	Apr. 1990	Frank Doyle	Stan Goldberg	Rod Ollerenshaw
Double Duty	5 pages	LAUGH #23	Aug. 1990	George Gladir	Dan DeCarlo	Mike Esposito
Love & War	8 pages	JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS (1994) #2	Spring 1994	Frank Doyle	Dan DeCarlo	Alison Flood
Maxim Mix-Up	5 pages	JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS (1994) #2	Spring 1994	Hal Smith	Dan DeCarlo	Rudy Lapick
O Solo Mio	11 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #52	Dec. 2001	Dan Parent	Holly Golightly	John Costanza
Bad News Boys	11 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #53	Jan. 2002	Holly Golightly	Holly Golightly	John Costanza
Ice Princess of the Lost Civilization	11 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #54	Mar. 2002	Holly Golightly	Holly Golightly	John Costanza
Stage Fright	11 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #55	Apr. 2002	Holly Golightly	Holly Golightly	John Costanza
A Singular Idea	6 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #63	Dec. 2002	Holly Golightly	Holly Golightly	John Costanza
Photo Oops!	6 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #68	May 2003	Angelo DeCesare	Rex W. Lindsey	Rich Koslowski
Go Figure!	6 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #69	June 2003	Angelo DeCesare	Al Bigley	Al Milgrom
Fame Blame	6 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #70	July 2003	Angelo DeCesare	Al Bigley	Al Milgrom
Show Offs!	6 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #76	Dec. 2003	Angelo DeCesare	Rex W. Lindsey	Rich Koslowski
Zero To Rock Hero, Part 2	22 pages	ARCHIE & FRIENDS #131	July 2009	Stephen Oswald	Bill Galvan	Al Milgrom
It Starts With A Kiss!	22 pages	ARCHIE #608 (June 2010)	June 2010	Dan Parent	Bill Galvan	Rich Koslowski
With This Ring!	20 pages	ARCHIE #632	June 2012	Dan Parent	Dan Parent	Rich Koslowski
Showstopper!	6 pages	B & V FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #244	Sept. 2015	J. Torres	Gisele Lagace	Rich Koslowski
(no title)	20 pages	JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS (2016) #1	Nov. 2016	Marguerite Bennett	Audrey Mok	Audrey Mok
Wild Things	10 pages	RIVERDALE #3	Jul. 2017	James DeWille	Joe Eisma	A. Syzmanowicz

FRINGE BENEFITS OF BEING THE MANAGER OF AN ALL-GIRL ROCK BAND...

AND HE CLAIMED HE WAS "ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY" (AND TO PISS OFF HIS SISTER)

Thanks for posting all this info, DeCarlo. 

I was bummed-out about not being able to get the new collection, but it looks like most of those stories are reprints from other collections or stuff I have already so now I know I can hold off on it for awhile. 

Quote from: CAPalace on September 08, 2017, 11:15:43 AM
Thanks for posting all this info, DeCarlo. 

I was bummed-out about not being able to get the new collection, but it looks like most of those stories are reprints from other collections or stuff I have already so now I know I can hold off on it for awhile. 

You're welcome. I meant to get these all posted a week or so ago (I already had the tables in Excel) but it turned out to be a bear formatting the text in tables for posting on the SimpleMachines forum board, because I had to format the text in each cell with HTML tags nested within tags... a very time-consuming process, especially for the larger collections. I could have left out some of the details (I was forced to omit a short synopsis of each story, because it just took up way too much space, even after trying to pare the synopses down to as basic as possible), but it's really hard to compare if you're just looking at text that isn't separated into columns.

Now in summary, I'd say my recommendations for anyone would be:

If you prefer digital, you DEFINITELY should get --
(CapPalace, I'm pretty sure you must already have all, or at least most, of these):

BEST OF JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS (2001) - the digital version is on Comixology/Amazon for $6!
SHE'S JOSIE: BEFORE THE PUSSCATS! (2013)
BEST OF JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS: GREATEST HITS! (2014)
JOSIE AND THE SCAREDY CATS (2015)

There's a little duplication between those, but not that much. [Believe me, it's nowhere near as bad as the redundancy on the FIVE different digital exclusive SABRINA collections.] If you have those four above in digital, you can easily skip the ARCHIE 75 SERIES: JOSIE collection, unless you really,really have to have that one 8-page story "Rebellion" from JOSIE #20 (and I admit, it's a great story, where the women in town revolt and take charge, in the most physical way possible)... but it is just ONE story.

You could also add the digital version of ARCHIE'S BIG BOOK, if so inclined. That would largely be an individual choice, depending on how you felt about the Little Archie and Sabrina (all DeCarlo, but one) stories, but the main reason for Josie fans to have it would just be for the complete 4-part stories in JOSIE #2 and 3 -- worth buying just for that, IMO, but your call.

Then you'll have most of the stuff you need. I don't know, look at the list of titles in red from the new BEST OF trade paperback, and make up your mind if you can't live without those for the digital version (but it might be cheaper to just find copies of the original comics or digests in some cases).


And for those people who don't do digital, it's even simpler - just get THE BEST OF JOSIE (2001), ARCHIE'S BIG BOOK, and the new 2017 BEST OF JOSIE trade paperback.

Yes, thanks, DeCarlo, for putting this together!
It looks like the only book I need is Archie's Big Book of Mischief..., since I don't do digital.
I already have all the Josie comic books, but its nice to have the reprints so I don't have to handle the originals since they are so old and valuable.

Quote from: Ronny G on September 08, 2017, 01:53:24 PM
Yes, thanks, DeCarlo, for putting this together!

Seconded. It's really useful information

I'm very much in the 'non-digital' camp. Perhaps it's that I work at a computer all day, so I don't want to be spending all my leisure time at one, but I enjoy the experience of reading a physical comic book rather than messing about with one on a screen

Quote from: Purgatori on September 11, 2017, 01:59:57 AM

Quote from: Ronny G on September 08, 2017, 01:53:24 PM
Yes, thanks, DeCarlo, for putting this together!

Seconded. It's really useful information

I'm very much in the 'non-digital' camp. Perhaps it's that I work at a computer all day, so I don't want to be spending all my leisure time at one, but I enjoy the experience of reading a physical comic book rather than messing about with one on a screen

I can identity with that, spending most of my working day in front of a computer. It's only with the greatest of reluctance that I'll give in to the temptation to purchase a digital comic, and only where there's no equivalent print versions available. The digital Josie and Sabrina collections are really the only exceptions that I've made to that rule, apart from Kickstarter initiatives and a few webcomics I've saved.